Skobex's Return

Chapter 4

Anastasia was pinned to the corner of the room opposite where the shadow emerged from. She had been moved off her bed and pushed into that corner by some invisible force. She assumed the shadow that advanced on her was responsible. She felt her heart rate increase rapidly as her body trembled with fear. The shadow held its hand out towards her, almost touching her.

'So beautiful,' the shadow commented, 'if only it didn't have to be this way.'

The smoke reached the roof before the shadow signalled to let it loose.

'No!' She heard Christopher scream. 'Leave her out of this.'

The smoke approached her, going to consume her but it hesitated. The smoke seemed to change its mind and headed in multiple directions, momentarily confused. She realised that Christopher had slashed at the shadow person with his knife.

'Did you really think that would work?' The shadow asked. She heard the evil smile creep into his voice at Christopher's attempt to remove him.

The smoke seemed to split into two. Half advanced at Christopher, the other at Anastasia. She attempted to crawl away but didn't end up moving very far from the corner. Some of the smoke that came to attack her blocked her path and solidified.

She couldn't tell what Christopher was doing but she knew that he was defending himself. She focused on the smoke that loomed in front of her. She didn't know any way that she could defeat it or at least keep it distant from her.

The smoke surrounded her, enclosing her in a small dome. She was expecting to end up in a coughing fit but ended up being trapped, unable to move anywhere. She knew if she approached the smoke wall it would solidify again.

She curled her body into more of a ball shape as the smoke attempted to consume her. She tried to not let the shadow win as the smoke and darkness injected itself into her skin. Her body grew weaker. More smoke had consumed her, sapping away her strength. She wasn't prepared to let it win. Not that easily.

With each sliver of darkness that seeped into her, the thoughts she conjured began to change. Her panicked thoughts slowly transformed into thoughts such as 'I should let him in...' or mentions of Christopher not to be trusted and that he should be hurt.

She attempted to think of anything else that would prolong her what Anastasia assumes was her death. Anything else to avoid hearing the voices that put those ideas in her head.

Her thoughts then wandered off to Christopher; the person who showed up at Cinderash and happened to bring the Lich back from its banishment. She hated that he had just come into town and flipped her and the whole town's lives upside down. If only he knew what he was putting the town through, then maybe he'll understand the extent of what he had done.

'Christopher can't be trusted,' the voice hissed in her mind. 'Together, we can eliminate him and rise to great power.'

These thoughts were what the Lich wanted, letting more shadow into her. She had to fight it.

She pushed those thoughts of Christopher away and focused on memories of her mother and imagined she was cooking something that smells delicious. She imagined gardening with her mother as they harvested and planted crops. She remembered funny things that her older siblings did and all the attempts her older brother did in an attempt to scare Tamara, her eldest sister. She resurfaced all the positive memories she had in order to maintain control.

Anastasia felt a hand brush past her leg, stopping the smoke and darkness for a moment before disappearing behind the smoke wall.

'Hand!' She heard a Christopher's voice call out.